Protocol Abstract of Mama Sana: Optimizing Health Outcomes for Spanish-speaking Mothers and Their Babies at Brigham and Women's Hospital

OBJECTIVES: Mama Sana is a quality improvement program that will provide perinatal nutrition and breastfeeding (BF) counseling in a culturally and language-specific manner to Spanish-speaking patients at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) (Boston, MA). Our goal is to increase rates of exclusive BF at discharge and 6-weeks postpartum (PP), decrease PP weight retention, and improve diet quality for all patients enrolled. METHODS: Spanish-speaking patients screened and identified at a prenatal visit will be able to attend group virtual classes conducted in Spanish on BF, nutrition, and nutrition for gestational diabetes conducted by a bilingual registered dietitian and certified lactation counselor. Data on infant feeding intentions, diet quality, and perceived module effectiveness will be gathered using REDCap questionnaires. All Spanish-speaking patients who deliver at BWH will receive bedside lactation counseling, as well as follow-up counseling at 7–14 days, 3, and 6 months after delivery. We will collect information on BF status and lifestyle habits using standardized questionnaires during each call. Patients will have access to a Spanish BF “warmline” until 1 year PP. Information on maternal and infant health, delivery data, and comorbidities will be gathered from the electronic medical records of participants. Baseline data will be collected from Spanish-speaking patients who delivered at BWH and were discharged prior to program implementation. RESULTS: We aim to perform 100 retrospective chart reviews and enroll 100 birthing parents prospectively to reach a total of 200 participants over 12 months. We will examine demographics and compare characteristics between the pre-and post-Mama Sana epochs using the Student's T-test or chi-squared test for continuous and categorical data, respectively. We will compare process measures, outcomes, and balancing measures by epoch using run charts and will examine changes over time. CONCLUSIONS: Mama Sana combines language and culturally concordant BF and nutrition counseling to target health issues affecting Spanish-speaking mother-infant dyads. We anticipate this wrap-around model will decrease disparities in health care delivery and improve BF initiation and duration rates, as well as diet quality and weight retention in enrolled mothers. FUNDING SOURCES: BWH Department of Pediatric of Newborn Medicine.